


Fool Me Twice

by Aaskada



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Betrayal, Canon character deaths, M/M, Nyx Lives, all the death/violence is off screen and only talked about after the fact, because I say so, forgot to add that one
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-15
Updated: 2020-10-14
Packaged: 2021-03-09 01:27:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,764
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27016531
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aaskada/pseuds/Aaskada
Summary: Insomnia falls. Those who search for truth don't always like what they find.
Relationships: Titus Drautos | Glauca/Cor Leonis
Comments: 1
Kudos: 11





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I might write something more for this, but I have no current plans so it will remain marked complete. ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯

Cor smiled reflexively when he felt Titus' hand settle against his back. His husband smiled back.

"Careful, my heart, you could get in trouble if someone saw."

"But then I could never see you." He pressed a kiss against Titus' cheek. "You always make me smile."

That got him another smile and a kiss in return. Titus didn't say anything else so Cor leaned against him, content to watch the city from high up in the citadel.

It was a busy day—the plaza out front was full of people coming and going and the one persistent group of protesters who were horribly offended that they should have to see the evidence that Lucis was not safe for the majority of her citizens in the form of refugees from territories lost to the Empire. Very few of the people working in the citadel whose opinions mattered were sympathetic to them, but their constant presence was still a slap in the face of the Glaives who fought for the crown in hopes of reclaiming their homes and avenging their families. For the moment he ignored them and focused on more pleasant things. The warmth of his husband, the child he brought back from his infiltration of Zegnautus Keep doing well with his new parents, the recent mischief Noctis had dragged his adviser and Shield-to-be into.

"How is your merry band of lunatics?"

Titus groaned into his hair.

That bad?"

"Furia started another fight with Ulric's group and Lazarus tossed them all off the citadel to get them to shut up."

Cor choked on laughter. "No one told me about that yet."

"They just did it."

"You left them to Clarus' mercy?"

"I'm too busy regretting my existence to make them regret theirs."

"Poor beloved." He reached up and cupped Titus' cheek. "I'll make you feel better."

"You already have."

"Disgusting. Can't the two of you at least be indecent instead of sickeningly cute?"

Rolling his eyes, Cor turned just enough to see Monica where she was leaning out of her office. "We aren't putting on a show for you. Find someone else to fulfill your voyeurism kink."

"Stop being cute outside my office."


	2. Chapter 2

It's not that Cor expected otherwise—he's realistic enough to acknowledge that Regis and Clarus were a decade older than him and knew their deaths were inevitable even without the added stress of the Royal magic—but having to live on after they've died is hard. Been murdered. No matter how many people they lost when Insomnia fell none of them were what Regis and Clarus and Cid and Weskham were to him. And now half of them were dead and wouldn't even get proper funerals.

They had a pretty good idea what happened. One of their captains made it to the rendezvous in bad shape to tell them his squad helped Ulric and the Princess escape Luche Lazarus, of all people, and a group of Glaives following him. The man's story wasn't unique as more people made it out of the city. Lazarus got away from them, but despite that doesn't seem to have made it out of the city. Very few of those who threw in with the Empire did. The clear fact that half the Kingsglaive were traitors was bad enough without the further evidence that their first victims had been their more loyal comrades. No one knows what happened to Drautos ( _Titus_ ), only that no one remembered seeing him the day of the signing. Not even Cor, who could only say he didn't think his husband returned to their apartment the night before at all.

Then Ostium showed up at the Keycatrich outpost dragging Ulric half-dead and unconscious behind him.

Cor was at Hammerhead waiting for Noctis and his retinue at the time, but the only thing Monica will tell him over the phone is that he needed to hear the report in person. The prince— _the king_ —had to make the trip to the old mines anyway to collect the first of the royal arms. Cid waved him off and promised to pass the message on. Whatever news Monica had was important or she would have waited a day or two for him to arrive with the royal party.

"You ain't gonna slow down just 'cause you should, kid, we both know that," Cid said. "I'll tell the boys where you went."


	3. Chapter 3

"You always call him Glauca," Libertus commented. It was something he noticed the rare occasions he took his orders directly from the Marshal instead of Monica or Dustin.

"I'm not in the habit of deluding myself," the Marshal said. "It's clear which identity he valued more. The only question that remains is how badly I was fooled and it’s one I’ll never have answered."

“How d’you mean?”

“Was our marriage a cover to keep people from questioning his loyalty? A source of any tactical information that wasn’t shared with him? Another way to spite the king? Did he assume I would die with Regis and Clarus when Insomnia fell? Did he care enough to think about it at all?”

That was an unusually chatty response for the Marshal, one he got probably because he had known the man in question personally and had been there to see Drautos reveal himself as Glauca in the end. Or maybe because he had heard "for hearth and home" over the Niff radios and immediately figured out that Drautos was a traitor and Nyx was in danger, even if he hadn’t known the extent of it at the time. Or maybe just because it had been building up inside for too long and he was the one who asked. But then Libertus couldn't help but remember what Nyx had said when he dragged himself half-dead to the gates of the city, remember every time Drautos had taken care of the Glaives, and hope that some part of it had been real. "He might have really loved you."

"I'm not in the habit of deluding myself."

Ouch. It was one thing to hear about the Marshal’s tendency for blunt practicality, but that was something else. It sounded indifferent, but the man’s stoic reputation had proven true in the six years since Insomnia fell and night followed not long behind it. The Marshal was intense and Libertus was sure he loved just as intensely, but there was no sign of the pain he must feel as he said he’d been stupid to trust the man he chose to marry.

You didn’t stop loving someone just because they hurt you, after all. The Glaives who survived the betrayal of their comrades were proof of that. Nyx barely tolerated Sonitus half the time and he still couldn’t get over it.

“No chance at all, huh?”

“There’s no point indulging in such fantasies. Saying I didn't notice he was an Imperial agent because he really did love me and not just because I wanted to believe he did would be self-serving. And, at this point, it would make no difference to know anyway and I refuse to believe he would do something so stupid as to have left a convenient diary full of answers. The end result is the same either way; if he cared at all it wasn’t enough to make him care I wouldn't forgive this or that he couldn’t have me and the Empire.”

“Not even the Empire has the Empire anymore.” Libertus glanced off into the desert as if some sign would appear out of the darkness. Ever since Insomnia fell, he’d found himself keeping watch like mentioning the Empire could summon a dropship full of MTs. With the remains of their daemonic army running amok across the countryside the only difference was that they didn’t tend to fly places anymore. “Lot of that goin’ around.”

“Get some sleep, Ostium. You’ll need it.”

“I’m not the only one.”

His significant look was completely lost on the Marshal, who didn’t even glance at him. Nothing he said would get the man to take a break—the man apparently reacted to everything going wrong by deciding to work himself to death—so he just left him there at the edge of the safe zone where the light was just barely strong enough to keep the daemons at bay.

Five Glaives were stuffed into a booth bickering over kill counts at Takka's when he walked in. None of them who he knew well, but fortunately none who held it against him that he'd been stupid enough to end up indirectly involved in the bombing at the Citadel on the day Insomnia fell. Most of the Glaives accepted that he had been enough of an idiot to not know his fellow malcontents had made a deal with the Empire, but there were a few who wouldn't work with him at all. A couple actually told him he made up for it hitting Drautos with a car and getting the Oracle out of the city.

Even if this group wasn't inclined to be hostile, though, he wasn't up for socializing after the conversation he just had. Glaives were good at knowing when they _should_ shut up and bad at boundaries, a fact he wasn't in the mood to be grateful for at the moment even if it had saved him from self-destructing in the past. Might have stopped him from being so stupid in the aftermath of the treaty announcement if they hadn't all been busy or traitors. Or dead. He reminded himself again that only the traitors didn't take Crowe's death hard.

"What can I getcha?" Libertus' head jerked toward Takka. He was leaning against the counter same as he always seemed to be, eternal as only the daemons and the Marshal ever were. It occurred to him that the man must hate being called the Immortal more than ever.

"Doesn't matter. Something hot."

He collapsed onto a stool more than sat on it and leaned heavily on the countertop. With a bit of effort he spent the next couple of minutes staring off into space and carefully not thinking about anything at all. Takka dropped a sandwich on the table in front of him. When he stuck around to stare Libertus gave him a squinty look.

"Might not want to be around your brothers right now, but, whatever's going on in that head of yours, you don't need to be alone."

"Is you staring supposed to help?"

"Eatin' that sandwich'll be a good start."

"Yeah, yeah."

It was a good sandwich—his appreciation was enough to pull his focus back to the present.


End file.
